The best password managers for easier online security and privacy

LastPass makes it super simple to get started for free and upgrade later if that becomes necessary. It prioritizes simplicity while remaining competitive on the most important set of features.

LastPass has a great mix of features, price, and usefulness to make it an all around best choice.

You can use LastPass for free without it trying to force you into upgrading by limiting the number of passwords you can store. If you are interested in paying and getting additional benefits, its annual price is reasonable enough at $36 a year (broken down to $3 a month).

For the additional cost you get enhanced authentication support for YubiKey, enhanced sharing of passwords or secure items, 1GB of encrypted storage, and priority support access.

The thing I've enjoyed most over the years is that LastPass's free option is robust enough for personal use without feeling pressured to upgrade. A lot of the premium features are geared towards corporate users and those in more advanced work environments. The good will earned in this regard goes a long way if the need for a premium password manager arises in the future.

I've tested LastPass on Mac laptops and mobile devices. On recent Macs with Touch ID fingerprint readers, or Face ID on phones, the apps support these input methods to make unlocking LastPass much easier than others that don't.

The design of LastPass is relatively simplistic, but does sport ease-of-use navigation. While I wouldn't call the app barebones, it definitely has a minimalist feel throughout. Overall this is a benefit.

Even without going premium, the app supports integration with Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator. It can generate secure passwords, online form-filling information, and security checks on your stored passwords.

Pros: Generous free option, simple to get started

Cons: Not as fully featured as others

1Password is among the gold standard in password managers with its extensive list of features and benefits. The application doesn't come for free however, and the premium password manager is priced accordingly in its annual fee.

For those willing to pay for a password manager right off-the-bat, 1Password is the best place to start. It is constantly pushing the envelope in terms of features and working to make entering and saving passwords as easy as possible. The two main considerations for the fantastic app is whether the functionality is critical for your needs, rather than superfluous, and if your budget can support the ongoing annual fee.

If subscription pricing doesn't bother you, 1Password is the one to pick. You will get your money's worth and have a supported product every step of the way. For example, 1Password is regularly on top of operating system updates to make sure its app is supported day-one for the latest OS releases.

After a trial period, 1Password charges $3 a month for individual use or $5 a month for family use which covers five people. The company also has separate pricing for businesses and small teams who want to provide that benefit to employees.

What do you get for your subscription fee? Unlimited device support, reports of compromised and insecure passwords, travel mode when crossing borders, 1GB of encrypted storage, and one year of deleted password retrieval, beyond all the expected basics like strong encryption.

The family plan is the same but makes managing the experience for family members more inclusive.

While it's hard to fault 1Password in any way, sometimes it can feel overly complex. Logging into the iOS mobile app for the first time it asks whether you want to sign in with four different options – 1Password.com, iCloud, Dropbox, WLAN Server – or create a standalone vault. If you select 1Password.com it asks for a sign-in address, email, your "Secret Key," and Master Password. It's all a bit much when the app's name is 1Password.

I found it can be overly aggressive on desktop computers too, constantly relaunching when closed and wanting to complete a task.

Those items largely pale in comparison to the pleasant design, rich feature set, and mostly stealth workings. Some of the neat features include 1Password's own web browser so you can browse and login to sites right from its app. It also includes an Apple Watch app for carrying certain information on your wrist.

My years of experience using different versions of 1Password have generally been positive. It works as expected and is always trying to go the extra step in keeping passwords safe and making logins in simple.

Pros: Constantly updated and supported, great design, includes advanced and extra features

Cons: No free version, can be overwhelming for new users

Enpass is one of the few available password managers that will still let you pay a one-time fee for its premium service, avoiding on-going subscriptions.

Enpass is the best option for people that are fatigued by subscription fees. Enpass can be used for free on laptops or desktops to get started, but if you run into its 25-item limit for mobile devices, there is an option for a one-time payment of $79.99. (While testing this in July 2020, the one-time cost was on sale for $42.)

Enpass does not store your passwords on its own servers, like a lot of the other password managers do to accomplish syncing across devices. Instead, it offers to backup and sync using third-party services, like iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, and a few others. This may be a benefit or a negative depending on your feelings towards other services, but it does mean Enpass is not completely controlling all of your data.

Among the features supported, it covers all the basics, like auto-fill, password generation, audits on saved passwords, and syncing. It supports fingerprint readers and Face ID where available. The app's password audits check against haveibeenpwned.com to give insights into your password security. Another nicety is its Apple Watch app for quick access to frequent data.

While the free desktop version is neat and may even satisfy a few people out there, the 25 free item limit on mobile is extremely disappointing. It gives you a taste of the experience, but pushes the need to upgrade pretty hard.

I've been extremely happy with Enpass in practice and find it unobtrusive on my laptop. The mobile app integrates as well as any other third party password manager too, even if it remains a little barebones.

Beyond it's one-time payment, Enpass does offer a few other payment options. It charges $23.99 for a year or $15.99 for six months. Still, at the full price of $80, paying a one-time fee means that it only takes two and a half years before you've gotten your full money's worth.

Pros: Free desktop use, decentralized syncing, biometric support

Cons: Very limited free mobile use, requires another service for syncing

Bitwarden is the best free password manager because of its wide cross-platform support and its polished basic features.

Bitwarden offers a compelling password manager option that would be worthy of paying for, and yet it is a completely free option which only makes it even better.

The app is definitely a little barebones, especially compared to other password managers, but it offers plenty of features to keep it useful and proactively helpful. By default, it supports vaults, or areas, for logins, cards, identity, and secure notes. You can add additional folders if you have areas you'd like to organize protected items into.

While testing, I found its Safari extension is to be sufficient and responsive. It performs just as well, if not better, than other managers such as Enpass.

The design and layout of the desktop app resembles others like LastPass, so getting started isn't complicated, but again, can be limiting. For example, if you do want to import or export data you need to visit Bitwarden's website. Also, if you want to check the health of your passwords to see if they've been compromised you'll need to upgrade to the premium version.

Bitwarden is a fantastic free option, but if you do want a few more features the premium version costs $9.99 for a year — less than $1 a month. So, besides the password health checks, premium gets you 1GB of encrypted storage for file attachments along with YubiKey support, and priority customer support.

Pros: Usable for free on desktop and mobile, simple interface, low upgrade cost

Cons: No password security checks for free

If you've settled into only using an iPhone, iPad, and Mac as your computing devices then iCloud Keychain could securely manage all your passwords, for free, in a very easy and effortless way.

Apple has quickly expanded its iCloud Keychain feature for saving passwords, enough over the last couple years that it's a suitable free option for people who only use Apple-devices. There are caveats, but it's much better than not using it and could help you get acquainted with the idea of a password manager to at least get started.

There currently isn't a dedicated app for iCloud Keychain passwords, instead the functionality is integrated directly into the system settings. You can find previously saved passwords on iOS by tapping Settings, Passwords & Accounts, Website & App Passwords.

These save passwords in iCloud Keychain sync across iPhone, iPad, and Macs. Currently, Apple TV is not included. On the Mac, these passwords are found under Safari's Passwords preferences.

While Apple's solution is limited on the devices it supports and doesn't have robust features, it has some serious advantages in how it does work — enough that people primarily living on Apple devices should strongly consider embracing it.

First, its tight integration on mobile devices makes it smooth and fast. It automatically detects login areas with very few false positives. Having it directly integrated means that it also doesn't slow down the system or create unnecessary delays. It is a baseline for how password input should be done. This is especially true on iPhone and iPad. Not only does it work in the Safari web browser, but it works very well in mobile apps to give it a leg up on the other managers.

Among the features it supports, it can suggest randomized and lengthy passwords for tightened security when needed. You can manually add passwords. Passwords work across websites and apps. In iOS 14, iCloud Keychain will add the ability for the iCloud Keychain to advise on whether your saved passwords have been compromised in a data breach.

Of course, it is severely lacking in not being able to store other information and not easily and securely share passwords to others, among many things.

Pros: Freely available to any iPhone or iPad user, invisible to manage

Cons: Very limited functionality, not cross platform

Dashlane is definitely a worthy contender in several areas but it does push hard for the pricey yearly subscription by limiting the amount of passwords you can save in the free version to 50. Dashlane is a great option overall with handy features in a polished package, but there might be other password managers to look at before going all in on it.

RoboForm is another popular option which originally started out as a way to automatically fill all those text fields before expanding to saving passwords. It's free to try out, but won't sync passwords until you upgrade to its $1.99 per month, individual, premium service.

Password manager mSecure also offers a one-time purchase, at a $29.99 regular price, but doesn't best Enpass. It also doesn't have any subscription pricing or way of future revenue which means that at some point customers might be left without support or timely updates.